Week 2: Sparklings
Title: Unconventional First Meetings
Verse: G1 (Feeling Series verse)
Characters: Sunstreaker, Ratchet, sideswipe
Rating: PG
Prompt: Sparklings
Warnings: Slash at the end there
Disclaimer: Not mine
Notes: a spin-off idea from mine and Darkeyes' Feeling Series. Somehow, the idea just popped into my head when I started thinking of 'unconventional first meetings' and then I saw the sparklings prompt for this week!! IT WAS PERFECT XD
“There… see, all better.” The porcelain and crimson Academy student smiled, giving the sniffling protoform grey sparkling a gentle pat on the now fixed knee servo. “does it still hurt, sweetling?”
The sparkling continued to sniff, looking utterly adorable as he shifted to look at the once injured plating, touching it gingerly and softly, almost unsure. After a few more moments of his own inspection, his face brightened and he smiled. “No! It bettah now!” then he frowned the little audials on his head crackling a little with energy…hummmm… He may have to take a look at that. Or let the sparkling’s creators know.
When they found them.
“What’s wrong?” He didn’t think he had messed anything up. He would be graduating in a few orns, at the top of his medical class so he was quite confident in his abilities as a medic.
The sparkling was looking at him in suspicion. “You magic?”
Ratchet grinned. “Not at all, sweetspark.”
“Dun call meh dat!” The sparkling said angrily, standing a bit unsteadily and backing away. His helm horns still sparkled, the crackles in between each flare of light becoming louder. Which was alarming. Still, the medical student did his best to remain calm, if only for the sparkling’s sake. “Uma calls meh dat!”
“Alright then.” Ratchet allowed, deliberately not staring at the sparking audials. “What should I call you?”
The small being remained stubbornly silent, glaring at him suspiciously.
“Hmmm… I guess you don’t know me, huh?” Ratchet hummed thoughtfully, easily guessing what must be scaring the young Cybertronian. He stuck out his hand. “I’m Ratchet. Nice to meet you…?”
Still no answer, but the look was less suspicious and more uncertain and confused.
“C’mon sweetspark, you have a name right?”
The little frown turned farther down. “I said dun call meh dat.”
Ratchet did his best to suppress the wide grin threatening to break out over his face. “Well, I can’t just call you ‘you’ or ‘sparkling’ or ‘sparkling with no name’.” He said contemplatively. “I suppose I could call you ‘it’ or ‘thing’… Which do you prefer?”
“Nu-uh!” The sparkling had his servos clamped across his faceplates, trying to prove that this wasn’t funny. “Not a spark’lin’!”
“Alright!” Ratchet tapped a closed fist into an open servo, giving off the air of coming to an important decision. “Thing it is.”
“No!” The now giggling sparkling pushed at the adult’s leg. “Red Alert!” He said pointing at himself.
“Red Alert? That’s a very nice name.”
The now designated Red Alert beamed up at him, the brilliant little smile melting the med student’s spark. Frag, how could sparklings do that? Ratchet cleared his intakes to hide his embarrassment, keenly glad that Wheeljack was nowhere around. “So tell me Red, where are your - “
“Red Alert!”
Both helms, one white the other protoform grey and beginning to spark again, whipped to the side, alarmed. A light green femme was walking quickly across the market plaza, two more sparklings being dragged behind her, both definitely sulking. Red Alert shrank behind the medical student who he now considered his new friend. And by default, safe.
“Oh! Ratchet!” The femme looked at him in surprise and it took a moment for Ratchet to recognize her as a classmate at the academy.
“Slipdrive!” He greeted her, still somewhat dazed. “I didn’t realize you had sparklings.”
“Huh? Oh! No, no, no. They’re not mine.” The femme laughed in a grating voice that reminded Ratchet that he had never quite liked Slipdrive to begin with. It also had a lot to do with the fact she tended to slack off and try to pass by copying off her fellow students. And she was a little bit of a creep. “I’m sitting for extra money.”
“I see.”
“Yeah, and Red there ran off when I had my back turned for a few moments. These three have chased off every sitter they’ve had so far, but I’m determined.” Her eyes glinted dangerously as she kneeled down to look at the cowering sparkling doing his very best to melt into Ratchet’s leg. Ratchet noted that the other two sparklings, both larger than the one currently using him as a shield, were looking at the femme in something he could only consider anger. “Now, red, running off like that isn’t very nice. What if you hadn’t found Ratchet? Would you have liked it if some bot you didn’t know had wandered off with you?”
Red Alert whimpered, shaking his helm and crackling audios. It was obvious he was becoming more distressed.
Suddenly the femme paused, her purple optics glazing slightly indicating that she had a call on her comm. She frowned, stood… and walked away.
It took Ratchet a few moments to realize that, yes, the sparklings’ sitter had just walked away from her charges and that now he was left with three pairs of curious optics staring up at him. Little Red Alert looked completely trusting. The un-designated two, both still protoform grey as well, though he guessed they would be getting their first paintjobs sometime in the near future, were looking at him with calculating optics.
Oh dear Primus, have mercy on him.
“Who’re you!” The one with little helm fins demanded, ice blue optics glaring at him.
“Yeah!” the other, with helm horns similar, but not quite the same, as the little Red Alert’s. “Who’re you!?”
Ratchet sighed, fighting very hard not to smile. He got the feeling it wouldn’t be very appreciated. “I believe it’s polite to introduce yourself first, before asking somebot else’s designation.”
That seemed to throw off the two for a moment. He suspected they had been expecting him to just answer and get it out of the way. The finned one frowned slightly before a small servo patted his chassis and he grunted, “Sunstreaker. Not Sunny, Sunshine, Sunbeam or nothin’ stupid like that.”
Taking the other’s lead, the second sparkling held a closed fist over his own chassis and declared, heroically, “’M Sideswipe!” There was a pause before he added, almost as an afterthought. “You can call me Sides, though. It’s shorter.”
Ratchet smiled, and held out his servo. “Nice to meet you Sunstreaker, Sideswipe. My designation is Ratchet.”
The sparklings looked at his hand oddly, Red Alert doing his best not to giggle at his brothers, but failing miserably. It took several moments of awkward silence before Ratchet realized that neither sparkling knew what to do with the appendage. “Adults who meet for the first time shake servos.” He prompted kindly.
Sunstreaker’s optics lit up, apparently liking the idea of adults participating in the act and made his conclusion the same time as his brother. Both reached out to grasp the much bigger servo and shake it at the same time.
Ratchet had correctly concluded that both mechlings would rather be treated like adults, not their actual ages. And since it would appear that Slipdrive had forgotten the sparklings’ presences and wasn’t coming back, he figured it couldn’t hurt to look after them until they were intended to go home.
“So, it would seem that you’re stuck with me for the time being, and seeing as I have shopping to do, who’s up for some ener-pops?”
~>.<~
It was getting late in the orn when the three brothers decided that they wanted to go home. While Ratchet had been patient, he couldn’t help but to breathe a sigh of relief. Between the three of them, there wasn’t a single shop that had gone untouched around the Plaza and the medical student was exhausted and ready to trudge back to his dorm and recharge.
He had to admit, he’d had fun though. And learned quite a bit from the three little mechlings. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were Twins. And not just spark Twins but split-spark Twins. Watching them interact had been all sorts of fun and helpful. Sideswipe never missed a chance to let the red and white mech know that he was older by a few kliks and Sunstreaker was always quick to make sure that the mech knew that it didn’t mean anything. Because he could everything Sideswipe could.
Sideswipe, himself, was a curious little thing, always touching, asking questions and running off when something of interest had come along. Ratchet had needed to make sure to keep a special optic on him. Not to mention, he liked to pull pranks. Which was honestly very natural, but the sheer genius of some of the stories he’d been told had amazed him. Sideswipe was still very young afterall. He also proved to be the most sociable youngling he had ever met.
Sunstreaker wasn’t opposite his brother as most studies on split-sparks suggested. Granted, he was different than Sideswipe, but they shared a lot of the same interests and personality quirks. The sparkling had a knack for flair, as long as the colors went well together and nothing ruined them. He was slightly more aggressive than his brother, quick with threats if he thought you were threatening or questioning him, but he was also far more subdued and less likely to smile back at strangers. He mostly let Sideswipe do most of the talking. Yet somehow, judging by the way the finned mechling would constantly battle for the medic-in-training’s attention with his brother, Ratchet ahd somehow become the exception. He still wasn’t quite sure how.
Red Alert, he soon came to realize, had a chronic glitch of paranoia. Which was rather unfortunate in the way society viewed him. He was a rather sweet sparkling once you got over the jumpy suspicion that every stranger in the street was trying to snatch him away. Somehow, once again, Ratchet had become the exception aside from the smaller mechlings brothers. The sparkling tended to stick close to Ratchet’s leg, doing his best to stay watchful or just meld himself to Ratchet. It made it extremely difficult to walk half the time, but Ratchet just didn’t have the spark to say no.
Now, they sat, talking about the trek home. Ratchet wasn’t surprised to learn they lived nearby, nor was he surprised that they already had the way home memorized at such a young age. From the stories he’d been fed all day, sitters thought that the Plaza was THE place to be. While the younglings did tend to agree, they were often disappointed by the fact that it was always a look, keep quiet while I socialize and don’t touch anything kind of deal.
And maybe that was the appeal there. Ratchet hadn’t put more than a ‘Don’t touch something you know you shouldn’t and stay where I can see you’ limit. The day had been enjoyable to them.
“Hey! Hey! Ratch!”
The medic glanced down at the suddenly very interested Twins who were staring at him. “Yes?”
Sideswipe waved a hand, indicating the medic needed to lean down. He did so and was immediately assaulted by twin kisses on either of his cheeks. It was sweet, but he looked at either Twin in startlement, Sunstreaker looking embarrassed and Sideswipe with a cheeky grin.
“… Thank you?”
“Alright! It’s decided!!” Sideswipe declared happily, clapping his hands together and making the snoozing Red alert in Ratchet’s arms jump a little. “When we get older, you’re gonna be our bonded!!”
Ratchet was… speechless. “What?”
“Our bondmate.” Sunstreaker repeated haughtily, but with such an air of certainty that there was no way he could be dissuaded.
“… We’ll see…” Ratchet allowed, not sure what else to say.
The rest of the way to the Twins’ home was made in a content silence.
~>.<~
“Frag it all Sunny!!” The Autobot CMO cried, pounding the dent from his bondmate’s chassis none to gently. “Just what were the two pf you thinking?!”
“Hey! Speedlight wanted to see how my jet pack worked!” Sideswipe defended himself and his brother against their mate’s angry tirade.
There was eery silence after that comment. Then Ratchet was speaking in a deadly voice. “Tell me you didn’t take him up there with you…”
“Weeeell… we didn’t go very high-”
The Roar of Rage echoed off the medbay walls and outside Bluestreak cringed and covered the happy Speedlight’s audios while his lover did the same with Brightspark’s. It was amusing to see Prowl doing the same with the very attatched Jumpstart.
“What happened?” Wheeljack asked Bluestreak who just rolled his optics.
“You’ll hear it from Ratch, later Jackie.” He said happily. “I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t murder them this time.”
“Ah, he won’t do it. Doesn’t have the spark in him.” Wheeljack snickered after the sounds of pain and metal hitting metal faded away. “He’d just keep seeing them all little again.”
“Little?”
Wheeljack’s optics lit up. “Have I ever told you the story of how they all met?”
At the gunner’s shake of the helm, Wheeljack grinned widely. “Well, it was waaaay back before the war. Ratchet was still in the Academy…"
Verse: G1 (Feeling Series verse)
Characters: Sunstreaker, Ratchet, sideswipe
Rating: PG
Prompt: Sparklings
Warnings: Slash at the end there
Disclaimer: Not mine
Notes: a spin-off idea from mine and Darkeyes' Feeling Series. Somehow, the idea just popped into my head when I started thinking of 'unconventional first meetings' and then I saw the sparklings prompt for this week!! IT WAS PERFECT XD
“There… see, all better.” The porcelain and crimson Academy student smiled, giving the sniffling protoform grey sparkling a gentle pat on the now fixed knee servo. “does it still hurt, sweetling?”
The sparkling continued to sniff, looking utterly adorable as he shifted to look at the once injured plating, touching it gingerly and softly, almost unsure. After a few more moments of his own inspection, his face brightened and he smiled. “No! It bettah now!” then he frowned the little audials on his head crackling a little with energy…hummmm… He may have to take a look at that. Or let the sparkling’s creators know.
When they found them.
“What’s wrong?” He didn’t think he had messed anything up. He would be graduating in a few orns, at the top of his medical class so he was quite confident in his abilities as a medic.
The sparkling was looking at him in suspicion. “You magic?”
Ratchet grinned. “Not at all, sweetspark.”
“Dun call meh dat!” The sparkling said angrily, standing a bit unsteadily and backing away. His helm horns still sparkled, the crackles in between each flare of light becoming louder. Which was alarming. Still, the medical student did his best to remain calm, if only for the sparkling’s sake. “Uma calls meh dat!”
“Alright then.” Ratchet allowed, deliberately not staring at the sparking audials. “What should I call you?”
The small being remained stubbornly silent, glaring at him suspiciously.
“Hmmm… I guess you don’t know me, huh?” Ratchet hummed thoughtfully, easily guessing what must be scaring the young Cybertronian. He stuck out his hand. “I’m Ratchet. Nice to meet you…?”
Still no answer, but the look was less suspicious and more uncertain and confused.
“C’mon sweetspark, you have a name right?”
The little frown turned farther down. “I said dun call meh dat.”
Ratchet did his best to suppress the wide grin threatening to break out over his face. “Well, I can’t just call you ‘you’ or ‘sparkling’ or ‘sparkling with no name’.” He said contemplatively. “I suppose I could call you ‘it’ or ‘thing’… Which do you prefer?”
“Nu-uh!” The sparkling had his servos clamped across his faceplates, trying to prove that this wasn’t funny. “Not a spark’lin’!”
“Alright!” Ratchet tapped a closed fist into an open servo, giving off the air of coming to an important decision. “Thing it is.”
“No!” The now giggling sparkling pushed at the adult’s leg. “Red Alert!” He said pointing at himself.
“Red Alert? That’s a very nice name.”
The now designated Red Alert beamed up at him, the brilliant little smile melting the med student’s spark. Frag, how could sparklings do that? Ratchet cleared his intakes to hide his embarrassment, keenly glad that Wheeljack was nowhere around. “So tell me Red, where are your - “
“Red Alert!”
Both helms, one white the other protoform grey and beginning to spark again, whipped to the side, alarmed. A light green femme was walking quickly across the market plaza, two more sparklings being dragged behind her, both definitely sulking. Red Alert shrank behind the medical student who he now considered his new friend. And by default, safe.
“Oh! Ratchet!” The femme looked at him in surprise and it took a moment for Ratchet to recognize her as a classmate at the academy.
“Slipdrive!” He greeted her, still somewhat dazed. “I didn’t realize you had sparklings.”
“Huh? Oh! No, no, no. They’re not mine.” The femme laughed in a grating voice that reminded Ratchet that he had never quite liked Slipdrive to begin with. It also had a lot to do with the fact she tended to slack off and try to pass by copying off her fellow students. And she was a little bit of a creep. “I’m sitting for extra money.”
“I see.”
“Yeah, and Red there ran off when I had my back turned for a few moments. These three have chased off every sitter they’ve had so far, but I’m determined.” Her eyes glinted dangerously as she kneeled down to look at the cowering sparkling doing his very best to melt into Ratchet’s leg. Ratchet noted that the other two sparklings, both larger than the one currently using him as a shield, were looking at the femme in something he could only consider anger. “Now, red, running off like that isn’t very nice. What if you hadn’t found Ratchet? Would you have liked it if some bot you didn’t know had wandered off with you?”
Red Alert whimpered, shaking his helm and crackling audios. It was obvious he was becoming more distressed.
Suddenly the femme paused, her purple optics glazing slightly indicating that she had a call on her comm. She frowned, stood… and walked away.
It took Ratchet a few moments to realize that, yes, the sparklings’ sitter had just walked away from her charges and that now he was left with three pairs of curious optics staring up at him. Little Red Alert looked completely trusting. The un-designated two, both still protoform grey as well, though he guessed they would be getting their first paintjobs sometime in the near future, were looking at him with calculating optics.
Oh dear Primus, have mercy on him.
“Who’re you!” The one with little helm fins demanded, ice blue optics glaring at him.
“Yeah!” the other, with helm horns similar, but not quite the same, as the little Red Alert’s. “Who’re you!?”
Ratchet sighed, fighting very hard not to smile. He got the feeling it wouldn’t be very appreciated. “I believe it’s polite to introduce yourself first, before asking somebot else’s designation.”
That seemed to throw off the two for a moment. He suspected they had been expecting him to just answer and get it out of the way. The finned one frowned slightly before a small servo patted his chassis and he grunted, “Sunstreaker. Not Sunny, Sunshine, Sunbeam or nothin’ stupid like that.”
Taking the other’s lead, the second sparkling held a closed fist over his own chassis and declared, heroically, “’M Sideswipe!” There was a pause before he added, almost as an afterthought. “You can call me Sides, though. It’s shorter.”
Ratchet smiled, and held out his servo. “Nice to meet you Sunstreaker, Sideswipe. My designation is Ratchet.”
The sparklings looked at his hand oddly, Red Alert doing his best not to giggle at his brothers, but failing miserably. It took several moments of awkward silence before Ratchet realized that neither sparkling knew what to do with the appendage. “Adults who meet for the first time shake servos.” He prompted kindly.
Sunstreaker’s optics lit up, apparently liking the idea of adults participating in the act and made his conclusion the same time as his brother. Both reached out to grasp the much bigger servo and shake it at the same time.
Ratchet had correctly concluded that both mechlings would rather be treated like adults, not their actual ages. And since it would appear that Slipdrive had forgotten the sparklings’ presences and wasn’t coming back, he figured it couldn’t hurt to look after them until they were intended to go home.
“So, it would seem that you’re stuck with me for the time being, and seeing as I have shopping to do, who’s up for some ener-pops?”
~>.<~
It was getting late in the orn when the three brothers decided that they wanted to go home. While Ratchet had been patient, he couldn’t help but to breathe a sigh of relief. Between the three of them, there wasn’t a single shop that had gone untouched around the Plaza and the medical student was exhausted and ready to trudge back to his dorm and recharge.
He had to admit, he’d had fun though. And learned quite a bit from the three little mechlings. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were Twins. And not just spark Twins but split-spark Twins. Watching them interact had been all sorts of fun and helpful. Sideswipe never missed a chance to let the red and white mech know that he was older by a few kliks and Sunstreaker was always quick to make sure that the mech knew that it didn’t mean anything. Because he could everything Sideswipe could.
Sideswipe, himself, was a curious little thing, always touching, asking questions and running off when something of interest had come along. Ratchet had needed to make sure to keep a special optic on him. Not to mention, he liked to pull pranks. Which was honestly very natural, but the sheer genius of some of the stories he’d been told had amazed him. Sideswipe was still very young afterall. He also proved to be the most sociable youngling he had ever met.
Sunstreaker wasn’t opposite his brother as most studies on split-sparks suggested. Granted, he was different than Sideswipe, but they shared a lot of the same interests and personality quirks. The sparkling had a knack for flair, as long as the colors went well together and nothing ruined them. He was slightly more aggressive than his brother, quick with threats if he thought you were threatening or questioning him, but he was also far more subdued and less likely to smile back at strangers. He mostly let Sideswipe do most of the talking. Yet somehow, judging by the way the finned mechling would constantly battle for the medic-in-training’s attention with his brother, Ratchet ahd somehow become the exception. He still wasn’t quite sure how.
Red Alert, he soon came to realize, had a chronic glitch of paranoia. Which was rather unfortunate in the way society viewed him. He was a rather sweet sparkling once you got over the jumpy suspicion that every stranger in the street was trying to snatch him away. Somehow, once again, Ratchet had become the exception aside from the smaller mechlings brothers. The sparkling tended to stick close to Ratchet’s leg, doing his best to stay watchful or just meld himself to Ratchet. It made it extremely difficult to walk half the time, but Ratchet just didn’t have the spark to say no.
Now, they sat, talking about the trek home. Ratchet wasn’t surprised to learn they lived nearby, nor was he surprised that they already had the way home memorized at such a young age. From the stories he’d been fed all day, sitters thought that the Plaza was THE place to be. While the younglings did tend to agree, they were often disappointed by the fact that it was always a look, keep quiet while I socialize and don’t touch anything kind of deal.
And maybe that was the appeal there. Ratchet hadn’t put more than a ‘Don’t touch something you know you shouldn’t and stay where I can see you’ limit. The day had been enjoyable to them.
“Hey! Hey! Ratch!”
The medic glanced down at the suddenly very interested Twins who were staring at him. “Yes?”
Sideswipe waved a hand, indicating the medic needed to lean down. He did so and was immediately assaulted by twin kisses on either of his cheeks. It was sweet, but he looked at either Twin in startlement, Sunstreaker looking embarrassed and Sideswipe with a cheeky grin.
“… Thank you?”
“Alright! It’s decided!!” Sideswipe declared happily, clapping his hands together and making the snoozing Red alert in Ratchet’s arms jump a little. “When we get older, you’re gonna be our bonded!!”
Ratchet was… speechless. “What?”
“Our bondmate.” Sunstreaker repeated haughtily, but with such an air of certainty that there was no way he could be dissuaded.
“… We’ll see…” Ratchet allowed, not sure what else to say.
The rest of the way to the Twins’ home was made in a content silence.
~>.<~
“Frag it all Sunny!!” The Autobot CMO cried, pounding the dent from his bondmate’s chassis none to gently. “Just what were the two pf you thinking?!”
“Hey! Speedlight wanted to see how my jet pack worked!” Sideswipe defended himself and his brother against their mate’s angry tirade.
There was eery silence after that comment. Then Ratchet was speaking in a deadly voice. “Tell me you didn’t take him up there with you…”
“Weeeell… we didn’t go very high-”
The Roar of Rage echoed off the medbay walls and outside Bluestreak cringed and covered the happy Speedlight’s audios while his lover did the same with Brightspark’s. It was amusing to see Prowl doing the same with the very attatched Jumpstart.
“What happened?” Wheeljack asked Bluestreak who just rolled his optics.
“You’ll hear it from Ratch, later Jackie.” He said happily. “I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t murder them this time.”
“Ah, he won’t do it. Doesn’t have the spark in him.” Wheeljack snickered after the sounds of pain and metal hitting metal faded away. “He’d just keep seeing them all little again.”
“Little?”
Wheeljack’s optics lit up. “Have I ever told you the story of how they all met?”
At the gunner’s shake of the helm, Wheeljack grinned widely. “Well, it was waaaay back before the war. Ratchet was still in the Academy…"